This week has been a "tales of" week. Today's entry could have been written a thousand times over. All people that live in Berkeley manage to get over to the Berkeley Bowl once ever so often and they always encounter some kind of situation they want to post on the internet about. It's like a universal norm. What life all boils down to is annoying conversations we overhear while shopping at the Berkeley Bowl.
For all of you know-nots out there, I guess I should tell you what the Berkeley Bowl is. It's a supermarket where most of Berkeley ends up at least once a month. The place is way overcrowded, but they have an amazing produce section, really cute male checkout clerks, good bin food selections, as well as semi-decent prices. It's cheaper in most cases than Safeway even. BB is a blessing.
However, it's also a curse. The downsides? Lines, even on a Monday at 10:40 am. Annoying rich hippy Berkeleyans talking about whatever is yanking their chain while you wait in line. Anything you buy in bulk must be weighed and labeled by the bin food clerks, who usually act like your 1/4 pound of dried apricots is such a waste of their damn time. Too narrow of aisles. Curmudgeonly seniors in the produce section who use their cart like it's a battleram. Soup-sample abusers. The litany could continue. But we go. And we keep coming back.
Here is a sample of a conversation overheard today while in line. Subjects: Mother and daughter. Daughter is about 23. I am guessing she went to Cal and now lives here and works...at some bakery coop (Cheeseboard, perhaps, if she is so lucky). Mother appears to be treating her daughter to a load of groceries, perhaps because daughter is not using college degree toward her interest in collecting higher wages. Daughter is annoying and is likely an only child.
Daughter: Well, work is so demanding. We have to be there at 3:30 am and I have to work the primary oven. Do you know how hot those ovens get? They get really hot!!! Mom, you have no idea. Anyway, Robert got burned by the oven the other day. I told him not to get too close, but of course he did not listen to me and got burned!
Mother: Dear, we should start unloading now.
Daughter: Oh, yeah. So Robert is going to be working on butter pastry this week and I am on scones. Do you know how bad for you scones are? Mom, they are not healthy. Anyone who eats those all the time should just eat a muffin, because that's basically what a scone is. There's just not a lot of knowledge about what people put in their bodies. Sometimes people just don't even take time to look at their terrible habits, it's unbelievable!
Mother: Why don't you help with the bagging...
Daughter: Right. The coop is so stressful. People just have no idea what we go through. Customers are so demanding! You'd think they'd appreciate our help and would try to be patient, but no. All they want is more free samples. We only can give out so many free samples! If it were up to me, there would be no free samples. Everyone knows we make the best stuff. They don't need to keep sampling it day in and day out!
Mother: Yes, people are really one-sided sometimes, I agree.
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